Text │ Flying Fish
Over the years, games and film and television have been continuously blended to achieve the transformation of users and capital, and the aesthetic taste and interaction of games have also shaped the face of film and television. And just when we think that the simple and direct IP story injection and the form innovation of interactive dramas are already the limit, the game narratives that appeared successively from last year to this year have created new blood for film and television in a silent way, which makes people feel refreshed.
In August 2021, the movie "Out of Control Player", which tells the self-consciousness awakening of an NPC in the game, was released; at the end of the year, the first domestic script killing movie "Fame and Fame" became the dark horse of the year; at the beginning of 2022, "Beginning", which achieved the purpose of explosion prevention through continuous trial and error, became a hit; the sub-account drama "A Flash and a Shining Star" that the female protagonist triggered back to the past and constantly saved the male protagonist gained a large number of loyal fans; and the suspense mystery drama "The First Lights" launched on Netflix in March. There is also a strong script killing narrative style.
While games continue to expand the world map and approach reality in virtual space, film and television are based on articles that do virtual games in a limited space to make new ones, and this change is very interesting. Whether virtual and reality have reached a crossroads is unknown, but what is certain is that more filmmakers are staring at gamified film and television.
After the game narrative intervenes in film and television
What changes have been made?
Mango Monsoon Theatre's infinite streaming network drama "19 Floors" is expected to start in May, which is adapted from Cai Jun's novel, telling the story of a college student involved in the "19th Floor" game; Huayi Brothers' latest recorded movie "People in the Net" tells the story of the male protagonist returning to the website he founded with the help of artificial intelligence; in addition, Chen Zhengdao's "Bionic Human World" and "Player" starring Zhang Yunlong and Deng Jiajia all have a certain degree of game narrative elements.
Around 2019, the film and television industry has issued interactive dramas, after "Black Mirror: Pandasnake", domestic adventure interactive dramas "Antiques Bureau Of the Central Bureau of buddha's head origins", love interactive dramas "Fist quartet" and other works have appeared, involving both male and female directions. Some people attribute the failure of interactive dramas to open up the situation because the sense of interaction is too superficial, but in the eyes of a producer who did not want to be named, this is just the marketing mentality of "the video platform wants to create an innovative momentum and play", so what kind of fruit and how big a splash can be set off by sneaking into the game narrative of the film and television this time?
Npcs also have human rights and self-awareness, the protagonist has goals and results before proceeding with the process, the level does not achieve blood loss, the current progress deduces the final task... The emergence of these themes and narrative ideas was previously unimaginable. We can see these works, of course, thanks to the intervention of game narratives in film and television.
As we all know that storytelling is a traditional craft, film and television works follow the rules of drama to unfold the plot in chronological order, the characters have to grow, the audience wants the finale, but the game is different, the game is that you know you will win, the key is how to win? Without a level, players can even keep playing addictively.
Therefore, the characters under the game narrative do not even need to grow vertically, but they can extend the story line in space, and it can be seen that whether it is "Beginning" or "Fame", their narrative space range is relatively fixed, and they are narrated in a bus/villa, and the audience's perception is transformed into the user's experience, and the detailed detail investigation and perspective conversion are like the necessary techniques of the game.
Take "The Beginning", the male and female protagonists are trapped in an enclosed space at a glance, all kinds of objects in this scene have been cleverly designed, rich detailed information adds a sense of decryption atmosphere, the screenwriter excludes the suspects one by one through different priority orders, after adjusting the focus, the sense of difference brought by different perspectives adds an immersive horror atmosphere, which is very challenging for the actor's performance, which is why the male and female protagonists, "pot aunts", Wang Xingde and other actors leave a deep impression on the audience.
Screenwriter Chestnut said: "Compared with film and television, games are more experiential. Although some stories are average, they will feel amazing when they are made in the way of games, and they are made with traditional film and television processes, which is a mediocre work. ”
In the end, "Beginning" does not explain why this loop occurs, but it is no longer important, game theorist Brian Sutton-Smith believes that the game is a voluntary participation in the implementation of the control system, the audience subtly affected by the game has tacitly accepted the rationality of the game, after all, "it is all the old two-dimensional", replacing the logic of the cycle, it is the social issue setting and main theme of "Beginning" shrouded in the aura.
For many years, film and television stories have been accustomed to honing their skills in the structure of three-act dramas, but this does not mean that other narrative methods are not feasible, and crossing the circle and using games to refresh narrative boundaries is a new kind of keeping pace with the times.
Is episode gamification a good business?
IP film and television, interactive drama and game narrative are the three ways in which the gamification of dramas exists in parallel. Among them, interactive dramas have not really opened the situation, the game narrative is low-key involved in film and television, and the first way is huge, which has brought a win-win situation between film and television and games.
Such as the cooperation between "A Slight Smile is Falling City" and "Qiannu Ghost" produced by the drama cool, the name of "Dear, Loved" on e-sports, these two are female to the blockbuster drama, this type of drama soft implanted game, the main line is still in love, last year Tencent Video and "Glory of the King" concocted "You are my glory" with the highest specification configuration, which also achieved great success; secondly, Tencent Video is also developing male game series, such as "Crossfire" with Yaoke, and "League of Legends" that is on the way to come. They are all directly named after the game's strength.
I don't know when the consumption habits of male and female users are clear, "men play kryptonite games, women watch dramas." How to drag male audiences into the drama circle and retain female users who are dragged away by the game has become a difficult operation, and the attraction of male frequency dramas and gamification dramas may be one of the ideas.
A post-95 male game Kryptonian gold player A said to Bone Duo that he is basically uninterested in today's women to the series, "accept incompetence, prefer to watch old dramas, and the recently watched a new drama is "Snow Knife Line". Another post-85 player B, who has only watched American and British dramas for many years, believes that "men are willing to spend money on games for three reasons: "Play games since childhood; have money; have a strong sense of competitiveness, and in the small society constructed by games, I hope to be different and become powerful, so that others worship themselves." ”
This distinction was also shown in several women in the random survey, and we will find that the two habits of consuming domestic dramas and paying for games are difficult to appear in the same person. "Games and movies and tv are all about spending very little money to experience another life, movie tickets are actually tickets, games and dramas also need tickets, but that ticket doesn't have a ticket stub. Now many games are better than movies and television, playing classic games is more valuable than watching many dramas", female player C said; but in the eyes of fans D, the low status of the game is not worth spending money, "it is pure entertainment, lack of spiritual sustenance, and then how much is a month of membership." ”
At present, the game narrative intervention in film and television is still on the rise, film and television use the packaging of public stories and social issues to mainstream the game narrative, the game in a more invisible way for film and television blood, to avoid the game IP directly injected into the film and television hard landing to bring discomfort to female audiences.
Compared with the game Krypton, paying for video platform members is not worth mentioning, and the gamified episodes have not had time to make male users pay for it, and the pay-per-view model is closed. However, investor A does not look at games and film from the perspective of male and female users, and he believes that the game narrative is more attractive to young audiences.
"The marketing methods of games and film and television are not the same, the game is more to C, the series is more toB; film and television rely on resource integration, production experience, and connections, we can see that the bosses of film and television companies are basically 40 to 50 years old, and the bosses on the game side are basically around 30 years old, and they are more closely connected with young people and the Internet."
Therefore, when film and television companies adopt game narratives, it is very reasonable to choose younger protagonists, such as the selection of game architect male protagonists and college female protagonists in "Beginning", which is almost the youngest protagonist configuration in the noonday sun so far, and the user portrait of "Beginning" shows that young audiences account for 47.6%.
In the minds of consumers, they consume not only products, but also values. We all know that games are a high-output, high-iteration industry, and with their own subcultural attributes, many times through a unique understanding of a concept and painting style aesthetics can firmly grasp a wave of people, and film and television through the gamification narrative of the trend of the times to break through themselves, may be able to win more young people to follow.